At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, his world championship winning team finished fifth after many of them fell. Wei was also the favorite to win the gold medal at the Individual All-Around in Athens as well, but a fall from the high bar earned him a low score of 8.975 and put him out of medal contention. He placed seventh that night. The Chinese team redeemed itself by taking gold in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, beating out Japan and the United States.
Yang returned to form at the 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Aarhus, by winning gold in the team event, individual all-around and parallel bars competitions. He also won gold medal in the team event, individual all-around, rings and parallel bars competitions at the 2006 Asian Games.
Yang Wei is best known for his impressive difficulty scores across the six events.[1]
Personal life
Yang Wei has a long-time relationship with former gymnast, Yang Yun, who is an Olympic bronze medalist (uneven bars) for China, and now a CCTV reporter. In June 2006, Yang Wei invited Yang Yun to a news conference, which turned out to be a ploy for him to surprise her with a proposal. While he trained for the Beijing Olympic Games, the two had very few chances to be together, and kept in touch through text messaging.[3] After his Olympic gold in the All-Around in Beijing on Thursday, Yang Wei faced the camera and mouthed the words, "I love you," to his fiancée. Yang Yun, who watched his victory on television, shouted "I love you, too!" back to the screen. Yang Wei: "Gold Medal for my Love!"[4] The two married on November 6, 2008. Their son, Yang Wenchang (杨文昌), was born November 2009. Their twin daughters were born in 2017.
